Dreadful Dreams, a Nightmare to Reality
by Kyrogeniz
Summary: A fan-inspired story using the universe of Dead by Daylight with custom survivors tailored from previous pieces for the occasion. Contains graphic language and content, that's the only warning given. CURRENTLY POSTPONED: MAY REWORK DETAILS
1. The Awakening

_Where the hell was I? All I felt was an ominous chill coursed through the smoky mist with shrouded vision, a single lit fire was the only glimpse of light to show. The last I remembered, I was on a hunting trip through the woods of Wales, then the walking.. It felt infinite, as if nothing could be achieved by the endless march. Ever since that warm night the moon was fully lit, an eerie presence loomed around me, as if the hunter became the prey._

 _Frantic eyes darted from side to side, a pivoting of the heel every so often to assure that I was alone, yet it never assured my worries. Weakness overcame my form, muscles ached and my eyes stung as if thrown through a wind tunnel. I could swear thousands of palms were weighing my shoulders down as nails ripped into my flesh, tearing away at every moment I stood upright._

 _No matter how often I peered, each cracking twig or crumbling leaf had no source, even if I could've swore I saw it stalking me. He was lanky, deathly, ragged, and distant. It felt as if hope itself evaporates from its soulless eyes as colorless as a blank page. Hope… What was hope? Conscious minds were all I knew, and devising a plan of escape or perhaps a diversion was all I wished to ponder, yet I couldn't skin the branded image of the beast that plagued my thoughts._

 _Then? Darkness. The black eclipsed my sight, and I awoke here upon this decayed piece of wood. My clothes were noticeably tattered, and upon even the slightest shift, pain rattled through my bones; I had blood-caked wraps along my knees and a frail splint fastened to my left wrist with a piece of my jacket. I had realized it now- I wasn't alone anymore._

 _Around me were three others, each of varying heights, gender, races, and appearance. Not a soul looked related in the slightest; one was a girl, roughly five and a half feet upward with raven black hair and eyes grey and murky. She, too, wore ragged clothing, a torn pair of faded jeans and a black blouse in pieces, revealing the grey brassiere below. Awaking to her sent a chill down my spine, an awkward shift to plant both feet on the floor and cradled crippled joint in my lap was my answer, eyeing her eerie presence. She never smiled, not a single glimpse of her even showing remote comfort._

 _Beside her was another woman, merely an inch shorter, but with a much more vibrant appearance. Lavenderish white hair, periwinkle eyes, a short purple skirt and jacket to cover her arms with a white button down and a violet tie to match. This one appeared to be a character from a piece of fiction, or rather a gem of the world he once lived in. A common trend between the pair was their lack of pigment. This one was much more acquainting in light of the horrendous situation, speaking in a rather hushed tone. "Welcome to hell," rung out her voice; even its friendliness drove madly through my cerebrum, echoing wickedly through the desolate land._

 _Upon turning to catch glimpse of the last of the party, his presence was already fading into the fog, through the hellish woods was his destination. On the little I saw, the boy appeared familiar: a blue school uniform with hair just barely darker than it, perhaps a royal shade. No name could match the back of the damned, leaving the chance of seeing him unlikely._

 _I tried to stand on my own, but my eyes halted on the girl with the blackened hair once more; the blankness in her eyes- it was as if she was already passed hadn't she been breathing. Something slipped from my mind, entering and departing in a mere second, though it was like I caught the door on the way out and yanked it back into my grasp and slammed the frame shut: Kyuko and Violet were their names._

 _Mustering up my lost courage, a breath of stale air flowed through my lungs to dry the frigid wasteland within, scraping along as it passed back out. "Pryce." In an instant, I felt frail again, much like the weaknesses were exposed to whatever lurked within; I could swear a cackle clicked through the woodlands, yet neither of them reacted, not an inch of movement nor a flinch or recoil._

 _Confusion struck, leaving my head to pivot as he was about to speak, only to fall short. A minute point caressed my lumbar, tapping on each vertebrae as it ran up my body, shivering each as it passed. Upon looking back to catch the source, I was left wide eyed and my hands trembling, each piece of my form quivering all at once: nothing was there._


	2. The Revelation

_None of it made any sense- why were we here? How did we arrive? What presence captivated my mind, snared like a crow in a net? I sought answers and began questioning the girls, yet they had no aiding answers; they knew as much as I had: nothing. It feels as though a few hours had passed with no signs of the fourth member, his disappearance causing suspicions and concerns alike. Where could he have gone?_

 _Coherently, that being I witnessed on the path prior to waking was not a figment of my imagination. Both of my peers had seen its wretched form, the shadowed beast bearing an ax of pure bone and tattered, bloody rags. He towered at nearly seven feet if not further; was this spawn of whatever, or whomever, created this place, or rather was it born of the shadows and haunts these parts for reasons of pure amusement._

 _Only a few moments of waiting passed, unsettling was a proper term to describe us three. I took initiative and stood to my feet, nodding to the pair before my feet shakily shuffled towards the rustled terrain from where the boy went._

 _"One way or another, we oughta try and leave. Fuck the kid, he left on his own. We can escape this shit on our own, or at least figure it out."_

 _The black haired maiden laughed, shaking her head as her bangs swept over her eyes. A sense of relief struck upon this, yet faded the instant they were pushed aside._

 _"Nobody's going to escape, there isn't an escape."_

 _"You talk like you've tried. Well, have you?"_

 _"No, but someone has." Suddenly, a miniature black notebook smacked against my chest as my hands desperately clung to it. A single flick of the cover left the first entry… Then the next, and the next. Each of which fell more dastardly than the last._

 _"What the hell.. Beings? An entity? What was this guy high on, cause I want some." My own humor slipped through, perhaps it was how I attempted to hide the sinking chances in the sea of despair, only with desperation to hold it afloat._

 _"Joke all you want, you explain this place, asshole," piped up the quiet one, harsh as ever with yet such a sweet and charming voice._

 _A single grumble was all I could utter, an exaggerated exhale escaping my esophagus easily as my imagination imaged this mystical entity. Could this be the source of the eerie prods, as if teasing it with my despair? "So this entity sends these killers after us endlessly? What's the point of trying to escape?"_

 _"We could win our freedom. Nobody knows yet." Kyuko held a fair point, even the glare of her daggered eyes stabbed through my doubts of any hope; this girl seemed to be a beacon, an alternative motivation to fight on, yet what else did I have?_

 _"Sitting around won't push us through this; let's go: the plan is to stay together and work as a unit. If you don't know-"_

 _"Nobody knows anything," Violet again interrupted my speech, slight agitation growing within my swelling temples, even a few veins were pulsing; it's quite possibly just from the adrenaline of the situation. No matter, it was answered with a nod from the other woman, and I sent one in return._

 _"Let's go."_

 _Thus, our trudge began, each of us evaporating into the mist before us, the clearing we once knew fading away into the brush; one final glance back was all I took, my light was fading in the distance merely a few feet away. Again, the chill returned, wreaking havoc across my spine._

 _Hardly five minutes into our trek, one of our masses collapsed into the coarse earth below, pedals of grass dancing along their unconscious form. Next fell a second, only to leave myself weary; my last sight before plummeting into the black were fiery tendrils scooping up my colleagues._

 _Was this the entity the journal spoke of? Were the beasts written about and spoken of created by this monstrosity? Did the same fate occur to anyone that passed through, particularly the mysterious missing boy. Was his sealed away into the abyss already- rather, were all of theirs?_


	3. The Trials

_I don't ever recall waking up, the last thing I pictured were black splotches etching through the corners of my vision, slowly expanding until it became whole. Faint murmurs tainted my aural sense, blabbered words of a foreign language echoed within endlessly followed by the same cackle earlier that day._

 _Then, silence._

 _Dead air encased my form, gliding across my bare skin and beneath my garments with ease to plague my being with its bitterness. I'd swear I was dead had the pounding agony welling within my body wasn't beating away inside my chest._

 _Everything was faded, murky, and void. Foliage acted as a shield from whatever lurked within the mist, whether it be casting gazes upon it or entering the fire. I cocked my own head back just to stare in admiration upon the looming puffs of death, a single white orb illuminating the world below it; everything was fenced in, for my rear was covered by a fragile and shambled wall, easy enough to scale yet I was compelled against it. Beckoning me to try, yet heeding a red piece of cloth whipping through the wind._

 _What force drove me here?_

 _Momentarily, I forgot I was accompanying a duo in this dreaded land, merely captivated by the dancing puffs slithering along the dew-coated blades of green. I could feel the black caving in on my sight to only snap back attentive and alert; compelling as it was, collapsing in such a horrid place is as equally a terrible idea._

 _I began to take my first steps, each single motion crackling against the deceased life below and rustling among the lively turf, each clasping to my boots in futile attempt to sweep my body to the floor._

 _Something was there, I yearn to say someone yet it had only a humanoid figure, nothing more. Silhouettes danced in the distance, a smaller and more agile female with a lanky and unwavering giant trailing close behind; no matter how fast she ran, it seemed useless; he always caught back up. As his right hand drew back to deliver the blow I could only imagine as fatal, the duet vanished behind the trunks of nature's guardians._

 _Grey puffs floated above yet never concealed the beacon glaring upon the contestants, yet a glimmer leapt from the skies; a single pole stood housing a duo of lights, each flickering with its dwindling life attempting a last escape. Creeping through the dancing sod hairs, my vision was barely visible through the peculiar density of it._

 _A single hand rose to glide along the worn adobe towards my right, scraping fragments of my perished skin plucking off until I met my arrival at a newfound challenge: a mechanical engine-like device, beckoning for my hand to trail across its surface, and so I obeyed._

 _Immediate sensations burrowed within, a wasteland uncovered beneath the surface of my form; I strove to complete this regardless of my lack of knowledge on it, something demanded I partook in the challenge presented. Allowing his hands to wander about in the framework, loose cords were spotted as the initial product of repair: mend the cut, return the flow of electricity._

 _Unfortunately for me, the wires were much too short to yank into the brightness, so I was destined to toy with fire in Hell itself. Skimming along to the severed ends, copper twisted free at ease in the tips of my fingers to create singular strands, strands became coiled with matching pieces. One set at a time, its veins received their cells once again._

 _Still, as I yanked the cord to fire up the beast, a defibrillator of the ages, nothing came but the churning of the pistons. Again and again, no signs of life existed; what else was torn apart?_

 _Further into the contraption I dove, desperate checks and pries I made in hopes it awakened. Nothing was apparent; I could hardly discern a single part of this from another. Then, it struck me: cogs were dangling, misplaced, or blatantly missing from place in the grand scheme. Initially, my digits wrapped around each gear and instinctively returned each to the coveted beam it claimed home; reaching towards the dirt, I froze. What was thumping?_

 _Pain struck, beating against the walls of my sternum, only to quicken and drown my senses; my body desired to run, yet my mind came to a full halt. Not a single inch of movement- from the corner of my eye, I noticed the girl from earlier, Kyuko. Scrambling away with an arm holding a single rend in her abdomen, crimson leaking between the crevices in her palm. Something signaled to me that she hardly concerned over it, something wished for me to aid her; fortunately, I had not._

 _Mere steps behind was the beast, its body tiptoeing along the turf as if attempting to spare the life below it as it stalked the one before it. Distance meant nothing, it was always faster. Gone from sight, my trembling form was relieved of the overwhelming assault inside as my mind snapped back to focus: generators needed repair._


End file.
